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Friday, February 14, 2020

210 Pages of Love Poems in Rose Always - A Love Story of 2020



The question on pink and red Valentine's Day cards and candies is: "Will you be mine?"  I think that's the wrong question. The right one is: "Will you walk by my side?" You cannot own another person, that's slavery. But you can walk together, not in front of each other (leading), not behind (following), but together, side by side, on the path of life. To do that, we have to focus on what's truly important. As T.S.Eliot said, "the still point of the turning world" - Light, Love, Christ...

The Still Point

I like the way you look at me,
drinking me in
with quick, short glances,
as if it were too much
to see me whole

Very thirsty for love,
aren’t you?

You are the matter of a man
I’m the spirit of a woman,
we belong together

From all the possible futures
I pick the one
where you are with me

The space-time cone moves,
the options shift and shrink
every second 

I place you at the still point
            of my turning world 

(c) 2007-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story


There are so many delightful, meaningful stories, endless truth hidden in fairy tales. I've always loved fairy-tales and folk-tales, and have a nice collection of international stories. Only Brothers Grimm are so truly grim... others have discoveries of the walking kind, for instance, the princess that walked the world for three years in iron shoes to find her beloved (Slovenian "Pigeon Prince" tale). Or the Prince Charming who climbed over ancient thorny hedges and walls to find his Sleeping Beauty and wake her up with the kiss. That's the kiss of Love and Light, of course, true union of their souls. 

Up, Up, Up

With you, I’m a fairy-tale princess,
a Cinderella, perhaps, with her gold
spun-glass slipper on my nightstand
by the Polish Bible I use each day
to find out if I’ve been good.
I really do not know.

Sometimes, I’m a sleeping Beauty
with rosy cheeks, awakened
by the lightest touch of your lips.

Why are you my Prince Charming?
I really do not know. Why
did I have to cross the Great Plains
fly over oceans, wear out
three sets of iron boots, defeat
the Leviathan and the dark
Chameleon in my dreams?

Here I am – here we are
together. Step by step,
holding hands, we climb
the inaccessible heights of God’s
white mountain, its snowy peaks
dazzling with the brilliance
of the sky – song – light – 


(c) 2011-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story



Heart

…petal by petal, the flower of our heart
                                              ~ Amy Lowell
drawing together
the vine of heart leaves
stroke by stroke
from darkness
into light
intertwined –
with the vine
of love

(c) 2014-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story

 

As love grows, its meaning deepens, beyond passion, beyond infatuation, towards endless delight and admiration, arising from the true clarity of a shared purpose, shared light... The more we know the profound beauty of the beloved, the mysteries within, the more love there is.  Love is truly endless, the more we give, the more we have to give. It never stops, never dies. 

Amber

Red gold of falling leaves
and amber, liquid amber
engulf me with the intensity
of our love for all seasons –
Even the invisible California winter
without snow, with bright sunshine
and birdsong each morning – in time
for Darjeeling tea, Columbian coffee
and naleśniki, flat Polish pancakes
with a touch of maple syrup from Vermont.
The whole world celebrates with us
for we know true meaning of attachment –
not the pink blush of infatuation –
not the wine-red rose of passion –
but this, only this – pure clarity
of azure skies – clear radiance of red gold
and amber – liquid amber 


(c) 2017-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story



Forever - is made of "nows"- wrote Emily Dickinson in one of her timeless poems. Indeed, forever is nothing but a string of moments, each more precious than another, each shining with a warm light of love within.

Afterglow

you taste of sunlight

sweetness, soft swirls
of ice cream melting
on yellow rays of mango slices
the golden glow of honey
in your eyes

you surprise me
I turn my head and
there you are, looking at me
over your oil-smudged fingers,
engine parts –

smiling

you know what I think
you taste of sunlight


(c) 2008-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story


Lost and Found
  
… the sky of the sky of a tree called life
                          ~ e.e. cummings
I found myself
in a perfect place

I laugh to tears
and I like what I see

after broken pieces
of Devil’s mirror were
washed away from my eyes

There’s no torment here,
no limits, only the infinite
glory of becoming One

with Universe, One with
the Divine, endlessly delighted

No anxiety, no desire –
I live right here, right now

Thank you for the key
that opened my door to Paradise –

Serene, fearless, I’m wholly
and whole made of Love –


(c) 2010-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story



Twin Flame Promise
                        
to have, to hold, and to cherish
                                                ~ old English wedding vows

I take you to be my beloved
for today and tomorrow
for all days and nights
for a week and all weeks
for a month and all months
for a year and all years
for all eternity
wherever we are and will be
in rain and sunlight
in joy and happy togetherness
of our most holy marriage
our divine union

I promise you solemnly my love
faithfulness and honesty
and that I will not leave you until my death
I will be with you as long as I exist
I promise you the love of my heart
because you are my heart –
and the love of my body
because you are my body –
and the love of my eyes
because you are the light of my eyes –
and the love of my soul
because you are my soul mate
my being’s other half
my fulfillment now and forever

In God, our Divine Source, Way and Life
sharing our love for ever and ever

And so let it grow and last and be
my promise for you and yours for me

(c) 2015-2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story


I Did Not Dare To Hope

Yet I know it is true.
This certainty is of a bubbly
sparkling kind – it floats up
like champagne in a tall flute
to welcome the New Year
of promises to keep, of bliss-filled
Love that never was, but always is –
always as in a country song of old
shining on pink rose petals
covered with diamond dew
in the morning, under
the periwinkle sky
“of endless possibilities
and our greatest dreams”
that we’ve known
and will know –

together.

(c) 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story



Diamonds

In a seashell there is an ocean
There is Universe within my heart
A myriad galaxies dance in my mind
I’m a microcosm of Divine design

In a seashell there is an ocean
In dark coal mine bright diamonds grow
In your eyes I find ageless wisdom
The One Love that sustains us all

In your guilt I see my darkness
In your beauty – radiance and light
In your voice – the calling, the calling

Mountain air on a spring morning
Sparkling diamonds, radiant and pure –
            For all forevers you enfold me in Love 


(c) 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk, from Rose Always - A Love Story


ISBN 978-1-945938-48-1 (color hardcover)

The final version of Rose Always - A Love Story has been published in hardcover format, available only on lulu.com. With 224 pages, 180 poems in seven sections, it is a veritable encyclopedia of love, and the shifting emotions, from romantic infatuation, through bitterness of rejection, longing, and fulfillment in togetherness, found in serenity of mutual acceptance and forgiveness. 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/maja-trochimczyk/rose-always-a-love-story/hardcover/product-24410148.html

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/maja-trochimczyk/rose-always-a-love-story/hardcover/product-1qkdevkp.html

Surprisingly sweet and gentle, this love story is told in over 180 poems set into seven parts (Wishing, Seeing, Longing, Knowing, Feeling, Loving, Being). Inspired by Life itself and great love-literature classics, especially The Songs of Songs, with its surreal mixture of the romantic and the spiritual, this collection is Maja Trochimczyk’s most intimate and poignant poetry book, following a series of music studies and poetry anthologies.


Preface

A book of poetry is a tapestry made with threads of impressions, memories, emotions, images, visions, and dreams. It is made with words borrowed from others and those discovered in moments of revelation. The greatest influence for this collection came from the most astounding and mysterious book of Love that has been written by Life. Thank you, my Beloved! Or, as Polish people say, Kochanie moje… Then, there is the mystical poetry of The Songs of Songs and its saintly commentators, especially St. John of the Cross and the blessed Hadewijch. Catholic liturgical and religious allusions include quotations from the Gospels, as well as allusions to the genres of the litany, lamentation, collecta, completa, lauda, the hymn and psalm. From the Buddhist and Hindu worlds, the One Divine Love and Light appear along with the concepts of reincarnation, karma, wisdom, compassion, forgiveness, and the mysterious Wheel of Fate that keeps turning, turning, turning…

The rose of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Little Prince makes an appearance, and so does the Sleeping Beauty, accompanied by other enchanted figures from fairy-tales. Words of my favorite poets – Emily Dickinson, Sappho, Rumi, T.S. Eliot, e.e. cummings, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Czesław Miłosz – are reflected in paraphrases or quotations. Roland Barthes’s study of A Lover’s Discourse was an inspiration, along with Dante’s Il Paradiso, Goethe’s The Sufferings of Young Werther, Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, Kant’s categorical imperative, Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, and a variety of country songs, jazz standards, and folk ballads.

Certain poems in this collection have previously appeared in print or online: my chapbooks, Glorias and Assorted Praises and Poems for My Friend (2007), Poets on Site’s chapbooks (2008), Epiphany Magazine (2011), Loch Raven Review (2010, 2012), Clockwise Cat (2015), Spectrum (2016), Altadena Poetry Review (2016, 2017), Into Light (2016), Lummox (2017), many entries of my blog, Poetry Laurels, and other venues. This book includes most of the poems from previous versions of Rose Always (2011) minus elements that I decided were harming this true, timeless love story with its many ups and downs, and a constant focus on the beauty and permanence of Love. The previous versions of this book have been all withdrawn and replaced with this edition. One cannot erase the past, of course, one can only redo the future, and this final version of Rose Always is dedicated to the beautiful present, where Love, like the mystical Rose, always is.

~ Maja Trochimczyk

January 2020